Empathy
by Legeti
Summary: What if Naruto displayed his usual impatience and unwillingness to follow directions during his encounter with Itachi in the hotel?
1. Chapter 1

"Don't do it"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as Sasuke spoke from his position on the floor before he crawled into a stooped standing position. "This guy…_is mine!"_

He eyed how it was seemingly taking all of his strength just to remain standing and, as he remembered the feeling of unease that had come over him just from _looking_ at Itachi, he began to inch his way around the two distracted Akatsuki members.

"Naruto! I told you, don't!"

He froze, his mind torn with indecision as to whether to obey Sasuke's demands or to give in to his own desire to help his friend. His introspection didn't last long, however, as Sasuke's shouted challenge dragged him outside of his head in time for him to see that, instead of answering the challenge vocally, Itachi slammed his fist into Sasuke's gut twice in quick succession. Blood flew from his mouth as he collapsed to the floor once more. Some distant part of his mind noted that he was grinding his teeth together hard enough to make his jaw ache. It was as he saw Itachi reach down grasp a helpless Sasuke by the neck that he felt something within himself… snap.

Channeling what chakra he had left to his feet and legs, Naruto shot around Kisame by jumping onto the wall that Sasuke had damaged during his foolhardy charge. He could hear a gruff shout from behind him but his mind was so focused on his goal that there was no room left for comprehension of what was said.

_Shit, not gonna make it!_

And then it came to him. Preparing himself for the pain that was sure to follow, he channeled his remaining chakra to his ankles and compressed it there. As he took one last step to get himself into position, he _shoved_ all of that gathered chakra into and then out of the soles of his feet and was sent flying off of the wall, turning in midair so that his right shoulder slammed into Sasuke's left side with enough force to break the hold Itachi had on him. As Sasuke was thrown free, Naruto passed in front of Itachi's face right as his eyes opened, sharingan in a shape he had never seen before spinning wildly. He briefly registered what seemed to be shock on his face before he was transported into a world of black and white as the genjutsu took hold.

"You're weak…"

Naruto cringed as his weight settled on badly burned feet before falling to his knees. His pain was forgotten, however, as he looked around to take stock of strange black and white world he found himself in.

_…shit_

Suddenly, formed from the blackness, he saw Itachi with a sword driven back to attack standing behind the kneeling forms of two people that looked vaguely like Sasuke.

"From now on… for 24 hours… you will relive that day…"

Naruto recoiled in shock as blood from the now gaping wounds that had formed on the chests of the people in front of him splattered across his face.

"What the fuck?!"

"They were a measuring stick to test myself."

"You _bastard! _They were just sitting there!_"_

"If you want to kill me… live miserably! Hate me! Survive through the ugliness. Run… run… learn to survive."

Naruto's next outburst died in his throat as he was treated to a slide show horror of murder after murder of men, women, and children… and then he was back where he started. As he once more fell to his knees, he attempted to brace himself for what was to follow.

**23 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds remain.**

* * *

Sasuke grunted as a screaming Naruto landed atop him, jolting his injured wrist. As he turned his head to glare at Itachi, his planned diatribe died on his tongue as their gazes met and Itachi's normal appearance of bored neutrality was replaced with something.

Regret?

Sasuke closed his eyes and shook his head and when he looked again the impassiveness was back in place. He was left to conclude that he had imagined it when Kisame was sent crashing into Itachi with sufficient force to send them both through the wall.

He whipped his head to the right and he felt his blood freeze upon seeing Jiraiya toss Kisame's left arm to the ground before casually incinerating it with a katon jutsu. Then, suddenly, Jiraiya was at his side peering through the recently formed hole.

"Well, they're gone." He sighed as he glanced down at the two of them on the floor. "Hey, brat, come on. We need to get the two of you back to Konoha."

"Why did he do it?"

"Eh?"

"Why… why would he jump in front me like that?"

Jiraiya gave him a look that clearly conveyed that he thought Sasuke's question was idiocy itself. "Aren't you teammates?"

Teammates…was that what they were? It seemed like such a simple word. Teammate. A fellow member of a group of people associated together in a joint action. While technically correct, it seemed to be missing… something.

His mind flashed back to how he and Naruto had shared a glance and communicated an entire plan of attack in that one frozen moment… to Haku and his senbon and how he had found himself between them and Naruto… to the Forest of Death, where Naruto blocked the charge of Orochimaru's snake and then, later, when Sakura, who he had regarded as useless, protected _both_ of them from an entire team long enough for help to arrive… to Naruto going all-out when Sakura was threatened by Gaara and how he had in turn protected Naruto when he was sent flying by his kunai's explosion.

_"Sasuke…"_

_"Finally decided to go back to your normal self? Even after all that, you only managed one blow… shape up, would you? I can't save you again like I did in Wave, you idiot."_

_"…Shaddap."_

_"Hey, Naruto. Sakura… you have to save her, no matter what it takes. I know you can. Once you've got her, run as far and as fast as you can."_

_"Sasuke…"_

_"I'll be able to hold him off, even if it's just for a little while."_

_"You-"_

_"_Never again._ I already lost everything once and I refuse to watch those dear to me die before my eyes again."_

_At his words, he saw Naruto's face change from shock to realization and then to a grim, ferocious determination that he had never seen before and the display that followed shocked him into silence. It had seemed that, for a while, he had had the upper hand but then there was a giant eruption of sand and before them a demonic raccoon, formed of sand, and covered with sinister looking swirling black marks. He was forced to sit and watch in horror as sand crawled up Naruto's legs to cover his body while he looked around in shock and fear. Then, as Sasuke called out his name and his eyes landed, once again, on Sakura, the look of determination from before had returned and was, somehow, even more focused… and then the sand covered him completely._

_Sasuke refused to avert his eyes because, although Naruto was about to die, he would at least show him the respect of observing his final moments. As he braced himself for the inevitable bloodcurdling scream and subsequent shower of blood, what he was instead treated to was the sudden appearance of a gigantic toad, complete with a vest, tanto, and pipe… and Sasuke felt his grim acceptance of yet another death give way to to shock and, yes, _hope_."_

Sasuke moved Naruto so that he was propped up against the wall and then shifted himself to mirror the position.

_That's right… he saved us then and again, just now, he protected me… I've never seen him move that fast and the look in his eyes… it was the same as back then. Teammates, that's what Jiraiya called us… but was that all they were? People simply thrown together by chance don't just put their lives on the line like that…_

"No."

Jiraiya's brow furrowed and his eyes flashed with anger. "You _litt_-"

"We're _family_."

* * *

**A/N**

Hullo, this is a thing. Specifically, my first thing... so I hope people like it!


	2. Chapter 2

Haruno Sakura was happy, and just a little bit smug.

She had been able to one-up her friend (rival) Yamanaka Ino in a friendly (vicious) shuriken throwing contest. As a result, Ino treated her at that fancy Dango stand where the Jounin liked to eat. While she was triumphantly munching on dango (the spoils of war were exempt from dietary guidelines, after all), Ino saw TenTen and Hyuuga Hinata walking by outside and quickly waved them over. After some conversation and dango that was obtained by further coercion of Ino, they decided to claim one of the unused training grounds for a few hours. After all, kunoichi need to stick together.

Tenten was, unsurprisingly, the best of the group with anything involving weapons, but where she truly shone was in her accuracy with thrown weapons… even those, such as swords and sickles, that were never meant to be thrown in the first place. Hinata was far and away the best at taijutsu and, through the use of her Byakugan, could avoid traps and ambushes with ease. Ino excelled at sensing the locations of traps that had been prepared with chakra and also at judging the strength and scope of a technique about to be used by virtue of her chakra sensing abilities. Also, when they paired off later in the session, she was able to use her clan techniques to great effect. While Sakura didn't have the same array of abilities of the others, she made up for it with less conventional - for shinobi, anyway - traps involving wire and shuriken; being on the same team as a prankster certainly had its perks. She was also able to snag everyone but Hinata in a simple genjutsu that she had conned Kakashi into showing her and, had Hinata been unable to see the abnormal chakra flow indicative of a genjutsu due to her Byakugan, she would also have been treated to the lovely sensation of an amorous thorny rose bush that wanted nothing more in the world than to to hold her tightly.

Once Sakura released the genjutsu, Tenten took a look around at her dirty and disheveled friends and suggested that they all head to the hot springs to soak away the various aches and pains one tends to get from several hours of training. At some point the conversation turned toward the idiosyncrasies of their sensei as well as the insanity of their teammates. Well, Ino, Tenten, and Sakura talked; Hinata's contributions tended to be limited to the occasional shy smile and she seemed content to just sit back and let the conversation wash over her. After much debate on the matter of who had the craziest teammate, they eventually agreed on a tie between Naruto's obsession with ramen and the color orange and Lee's poor choice of clothing and his prattling about the power of youth. Later, with promises to meet up again in the near future, they all went their separate ways.

_Absolutely nothing can ruin this perfect day._

Sakura was humming to herself as she made her way from the hot springs toward the front gate where she planned to gossip with the chuunin gate guards. While their duty was an important one it was also fairly boring since they could often go hours without seeing anyone. As such, they didn't mind it when people dropped by to chat as it tended to break up their day.

Had she decided to do something, anything, other than what she had planned, her "perfect day" would have lasted longer. As it was, when she turned onto the main street that lead toward the main gate, what she saw put to death all hopes of a peaceful afternoon of gossip.

There was Sasuke, walking slightly off to the side of the little group he was in. While you wouldn't know it to look at it his face, to Sakura, who had made an art out of studying him, it was clear that he was in pain. Next to him was Maito Gai, the bushy-browed green monstrosity of a man that had been the cause of much in the way of giggles and sighs of exasperation earlier, though he was wearing a much more serious expression than the last time she had seen him. He also looked a bit… sheepish for a reason that she could not discern. Heading up this procession was a man Sakura had never seen before with long, wild-looking white hair that was taller even than Gai who, on his own, made most Konoha shinobi seem petite by comparison. Also, judging by the looks of things, his nose had recently been broken. What really caught her attention, however, was the sight of Naruto, seemingly asleep, lying in the strange man's arms.

Which was how Sakura found herself standing next to a bed looking down at the unconscious blond while her other teammate was being given his first round of chakra-assisted healing for his wrist and ribs. With a sigh, she trudged over to a chair on the opposite while and, after throwing herself into it, wondered just how the rest of her team had ended up needing to be hospitalized.

_I really must learn to not tempt fate._

* * *

Sakura sat very still as the medic, whose name had slipped her mind, explained for the third time that, while Sasuke and Naruto were both injured to varying degrees, they will recover just fine given some time and rest. As she finally nodded acceptance and the harried medic fled the room to spread warnings of the pink-haired demon currently taking up residence in their peaceful hospital, her mind turned toward her teammates. Sasuke, who had been temporarily put under so that his ribs and the bones in his wrist could be realigned via careful applications of chakra, was carefully pulling himself into a sitting position in his bed. Naruto, however, though his feet had been partially healed (there was only so much you could do with chakra-based healing techniques in one sitting as too much at once could sometimes cause adverse reactions and that was generally reserved for life-threatening cases), likely would not rejoin the world for some time.

_Those idiots… though at least they're alright. If Jiraiya-san hadn't been there…_

She shook her head briefly to clear away such morbid thoughts. After all, he _had_ been there and there was no sense in thinking about what could have happened. Though she was still very much in the dark on what _did_ happen.

They stayed that way for quite some time. Sakura was fiddling with the hem of her shirt and trying to think of a way to start a conversation. Sasuke was lying on his bed while staring at the ceiling, his gaze blank as he analyzed all that had happened during the brief encounter with Itachi in the hopes of finding a weakness. Naruto was, well, not mentally present… though some would argue that this was hardly a change from his normal state.

"…Sasuke-kun." Her voice wavered and cracked and, in that moment, she hated herself a little.

He did not seem to have heard her.

She sighed, leaned forward, and, with more confidence, spoke again. "Sasuke-kun, Jiraiya-san and Gai-sensei wouldn't say… what happened to the two of you?"

He mumbled something she couldn't quite make out.

"Sorry?"

"We were attacked. Naruto… pushed me out of the way of on attack but got hit by it himself."

"Ah… wait, who attacked you?"

"My bastard of a brother." The last world was snarled more than spoken.

"I… see."

His head snapped to the side so that their eyes met. "_Do you_?"

She opened her moth to reply with what would no doubt be forever remembered as one of the great witty retorts of their time. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on your point of view-, a nurse chose that moment to breeze into the room to perform checks on both Sasuke and Naruto. As she continued to putter about with seemingly no regard for how long she was taking, Sakura's inner self began to contemplate the merits and possible consequences of taking this poof of a woman, cracking her over the head with the chair she was currently sitting on, and stuffing her into a conveniently located closet. After all, ninja village that it was, Konoha would undoubtedly have plenty of convenient closets.

On the one hand, she would be free of this interruption and would hopefully be able to speak properly with Sasuke. This course of action would grant her immediate knowledge of what had happened to put her two teammates into this condition and, through some chain of events she hadn't quite worked out, Sasuke would also realize that she was the only one for him and would promptly confess his love for her. Nobody could ever accuse Sakura of being lacking in imagination.

On the other hand, a shinobi attacking a civilian, no matter how justified the shinobi in question felt they were, the consequences would be, in a word, dire. In a best case scenario, they would be merely stripped of their rank pending an investigation. If found to be in the right, the shinobi's rank would be reinstated and they would be allowed to go about their life as if nothing had happened. However, should things not go so favorably, the shinobi would instead be turned over to the tender mercies of Torture and Interrogation and the chances of them ever again seeing the light of day were slim, indeed.

All of this was taught to all students of the Academy and, as such, Sakura was intimately familiar with the details. With a sigh, she decided that the nurse would be allowed to proceed about her job unmolested. On her part, the nurse would never know that the only thing that saved her from a quite thorough beating was a law put down decades before. While Sakura was wondering just how many civilians went about their lives relatively peacefully due to the existence of these laws she managed to miss the fact that the nurse had finished her work and, after sparing a glance at the strange girl with the glazed expression, went about finishing her rounds.

* * *

This was the scene that greeted Naruto when he finally clawed his way back to consciousness and away from nightmares of mass murder.

He was in a bed that, as far as strange beds go, was comfortable enough and, judging by how it felt as he lay on it, was likely a twin. While the sheets were slightly scratchy and, as he fidgeted around, he noticed a distressing lack of pants as well as a twinge of pain from his feet, he could at least say that the thin blanket provided enough warmth; the pillow itself left much to be desired, however. As he took in a deep breath he wrinkled his nose when he registered the sour smell of disinfectant with an undercurrent of what the Sandaime smelled like near the end of the day. Let us just say it was not pleasant.

It was at this point that Naruto decided to open his eyes and look around the room of the hospital, for it could be nowhere else. They were only open briefly before being slammed shut as the room was almost entirely a blinding white. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the curtains, and even the blankets. Hell, the only things that broke the theme were the bed frames, the door, and the bedside tables. Oh, and the people in the room. Mustn't forget them. Who were they, anyway? Once again, with considerably more caution due to his desire to avoid further trauma, he cracked opened his eyes. Once they adjusted properly, he took a look around, thinking to himself that whoever was responsible for putting someone with a fetish for blinding white in charge of decorating a hospital should be exiled.

There was Sasuke, on the bed adjacent to his. He was currently glaring at the ceiling as if it owed him money and a slight frown marred his forehead. His injured wrist was sporting a compression bandage which was, surprise, white. Naruto was relieved to see that his friend/teammate/rival/whatever was, for the most part, alright. He also noted with a bit of annoyance that Sasuke had been placed near the window while he got the wall nearest the door. Oh well, at least he could still see the tops of trees and buildings from this angle.

Over on the opposite wall from where Naruto and Sasuke's beds were located, Sakura had planted herself on a chair. However, as he looked closer, there seemed to be something… off about the way she was acting. Her gaze was unfocused and her head was tilted slightly to the left, as if she was looking through the building itself at something far in the distance. In addition to this, she was tapping her thumb and fingers together in sequence, like someone might do if they were counting something.

"…she's been doing that for a while, now."

Naruto whipped his head back to the side and bit back a groan as the room seemed to swirl around him a bit.

_Note to self… don't do that._

"Sasuke?"

A twitch of a grin was his answer, although his eyes still remained fixed on the ceiling. "Welcome back, idiot."

"You-"

"Honestly, what were you thinking? Jumping in front of someone like that. Probably the most idiotic thing I've seen you do, and that's really saying something."

_Thank you._

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

_You're welcome._

They stayed that way for a while, neither seeming to be able to put their thoughts into words. The only sound came from the rhythmic tapping of Sakura's fingers as she continued with whatever it was she was doing.

Sasuke turned his head now to over at Naruto. "What… what was it he did to you?"

"It-"

"Eighty percent."

"Eh?"

"Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, that's… nevermind. It's not important. Hey, you're awake!" She got up and in one fluid movement had crossed the room and was leaning menacingly over Naruto's bed. "You idiot, why are you always doing things like this?"

Naruto braced himself for the inevitable blow to his head (and his pride) when he suddenly found himself wrapped up in a tight hug. He could feel her hair tickling his left ear.

"You need to be more careful." And then, whispered so that only he could hear it. "Thank you."


	3. Chapter 3

The staff of the hospital were currently in a bit of a bind. While visiting hours were currently over as the clock had struck 7 some time ago, they were unable to decide who among them would be forced to deliver this news to the pink-haired kunoichi in room 317. Normally, something as simple as this was rather simple as duties went and tended to be both quick and painless. However, the medic that Sakura had managed to traumatize earlier had successfully spread warnings throughout the building to proceed into the room with only the utmost caution.

One option that was put forward was to fetch from her home the nurse who had managed to escape unscathed but, as she was now at home with her children and would definitely _not_ be amused by such a request, that was quickly discarded. Eventually, they resorted to drawing straws.

This was how one Fujioka Yuuto found himself standing outside of 317, working up the courage to knock.

* * *

"So, so, now that I was in and I had the stuff, I took all of the masks, piled them up on a table, and-"

He stopped as his attention was drawn to the soft knock on their door followed by it opening to reveal a man who looked like he would love nothing more in the world than to be elsewhere at that moment.

A man who froze mid-step as three sets of eyes turned to him.

_Oh, hell. The demon, the Uchiha, and that Uzumaki brat._

Realizing that he had been standing there, silent, for slightly too long, he cleared his throat.

"I am truly sorry to have interrupted you but, unfortunately, visiting hours ended some time ago so…" As he trailed off, he gestured vaguely at the door behind him in hopes that, if he did not actually _ask_ her to leave then, perhaps, he could escape intact.

Sakura simply looked at him without saying anything and he could feel the sweat running down his back as he thought back to all of the terrible things his colleagues had said about her. After what seemed like hours but was, in fact, merely seconds, she blinked, got up from where she had been sitting at the foot of Naruto's bed, and after saying her goodbyes, was past him and gone down the hallway before he could react.

Eventually his mind caught up to the present and he remembered what else he had come to say.

"Ah, Uchiha-san, Uzumaki…-san. You will both receive additional treatment tomorrow and then will be free to go. Usually, in cases such as yours, (here he gestured at Naruto) you would remain here for several more days so that we could further assess your mental state. Standard policy after a debilitating genjutsu."

"Why aren't you?"

"I have heard it told that Jiraiya-san can be very persuasive… it may also have something to do with the fact that the Head simply wanted him to leave her alone."

Naruto took this as a cue to jump in. "Hey, are you saying my mind is broken or whatever? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Some stupid genjutsu can't get me down!"

"Ah, I didn't mean to suggest… I mean, surely you are…"

"Don't bother; he's always like this."

"Dammit, Sasuke!"

Yuuto decided it would be best to make himself scarce so he promptly did so. He hummed to himself as he made his way down the hallway while pondering the dangers of exaggeration and the eccentricities of shinobi. As he rounded the corner, he was greeted by the sight of the men he had once respected.

"Idiots. All of you."

That done, he set himself to going about the remainder of his day.

* * *

Once Naruto and Sasuke were left alone in their room, Sasuke decided that the time had come for some answers.

"Naruto, what did he do to you?"

There was no initial reaction; he just sat there, staring at something through the window. Just as Sasuke began to believe that he had not been heard or was, perhaps, being ignored, Naruto's demeanor underwent a series of… adjustments.

The first thing to go was the wide grin that he was known for. In its place now lay an expression that could optimistically be called neutral. Next, his normally bright eyes, seemingly hell-bent on taking in everything that made up the world, turned dull and his eyelids drooped. This, followed closely by the smoothing out of his forehead as his eyebrows came back down to lie mostly flat, and his formerly good posture - compare and contrast, say, Shikamaru - degenerating into a slump, completed his transformation - and all in less time than it takes breathe in deeply.

"Why does it matter?"

There was a swishing sound and then a solid thud as one of the not-so-soft pillows so prevalent in hospitals impacted into Naruto's face.

The melancholy expression was gone and, after some spluttering, Naruto managed to find his voice. "What the hell was that?!"

"Stop moping and just tell me."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Really? This, coming from you?"

"Don't change the subject. What happened?"

Sensing that further argument would be pointless, he decided to humor Sasuke. So, after tossing back the pillow and arranging himself so his back was against the wall and they were facing each other, he hesitated. "Just… don't tell Sakura."

"Why?"

"I… just don't, alright?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Alright then…"

He told him about the strange words that had been spoken, the way in which they had been said, and commented that they made very little sense. After all, what use was hatred?

He described in great detail all of the people he had seen and of the varied ways they had each been killed.

He wondered at the fact that, during all of this, Itachi had seemingly shown no emotion or awareness of what he was doing. No, that wasn't right. It was more like he simply did not care.

Lastly, he spoke of how all of this had been repeated so many times that he doubted he would ever forget even one moment for the rest of his life.

"Even now, when I close my eyes," He blinked once, deliberately, "I see flashes of what happened. I was talking with one of the doctors or medics or whatever earlier and she said it was normal, but… I really wish it would go away."

Naruto paused to think for a bit, not noticing that Sasuke was sitting as though his spine had been replaced by rod iron. "Genjutsu is stuff people make up and show you, right? What kind of person could come up with something like thi-"

"No."

"Aw man, that's what Kakashi-sensei said. He probably just said that to make me go away." He made wringing motions with his hands. "Once he's better, I'm gonna-"

"No, not that." He waved a hand around. "You got it right though, as expected, it's the simplest explanation possible."

Naruto scowled, but before he could speak, Sasuke continued.

"What I meant was… he didn't 'come up' with anything." After taking a breath to steady himself, Sasuke launched into an explanation of how, after returning late one night from training, he had found the streets littered with the bodies of his clan; how, in a panic, he had run to his house to find Itachi standing over the bodies of his parents.

"And then… he did the same thing to me. Made me watch as, over and over, he killed everyone I had loved and almost everyone I had ever known." Sasuke looked around at the room they were in. "It seems he was planning on making me see it all again."

_Why didn't he just kill me if all he was going to do is mock my weakness and try and break my mind?_

As he could think of nothing to say, Naruto decided the best course of action was to fiddle with the hem of his blanket.

There was silence for quite some time after that.

"Hey, Naruto?"

He jerked awake. "Mm?"

"How were you able to beat Gaara?"

Naruto blinked a bit at the unexpected question and to clear his vision. "If I didn't beat him he would've killed Sakura-chan and probably you too." He said this slowly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's… it?"

"Do you remember, back in wave, that kid who was with Zabuza?"

He nodded.

_What the hell does that have to do with anything?_

"He said something to me once, before I knew who he was. He said 'When a person… has something important they want to protect that's when they can become truly _strong_.' It's true." He grinned. "It's a good thing you guys were there or I'd probably be dead!"

"But how? That doesn't make any sense. You're either strong enough or you aren't."

"I've thought about that a lot, you know."

Sasuke gave him a _look_.

"Believe what you want. Anyway, yeah, that's usually true, but…" He seemed to struggle to find the words. "It's like, ok, so you do a bunch of training and you get stronger and you end up fighting this guy that is way stronger than you are, and you're totally getting beaten up; you can't do anything to stop this guy - it's hopeless. Just as you're about to give up you figure, hey, I did my best but I guess I just wasn't good enough."

Naruto gestured towards where Sakura had been sitting.

"But then, this guy, instead of finishing you off he grabs one of your friends - someone you love - and he says 'If you don't beat me this person will die.' Well, what do you do? You _know_ that he's stronger than you, but you also know that if you fail _that person that you love will die_. It's not just about you anymore; you can't fail." He pointed back at himself. "That's what I was thinking back then. I couldn't fail… _so I didn't_. Get it?"

Sasuke gave a twitchy nod.

A quiet knock came from the door and then a nurse poked her head into the room. "You two should get some sleep, it's getting late and, well, this _is_ a hospital and if you want to get out any time soon you will need your rest." Seeing that they both understood and began rearranging themselves to follow her suggestion, she pulled herself back into the hallway and closed the door gently.

* * *

"I'm coming with you."

Jiraiya looked down his nose at where Sasuke and Sakura where standing. "Are you, now?"

"Yes."

"Tell me, why would you want to do that?"

Sasuke shifted a bit, as though his gaze made him uncomfortable. "Naruto said the two of you were going to get someone who can heal Lee and Kakashi. Kakashi is my sensei and Lee is… a friend. So I'm coming with you."

He continued to look at Sasuke before a hint of a smile could be seen. "That's mostly right, but good enough."

_Hard to tell him no. Damn kids._

He turned to Sakura. "And you as well?"

She blushed slightly. "Ah, no. Someone needs to stay here to keep an eye on Kakashi-sensei. He's so careless…"

Jiraiya shrugged. "Suit yourself. Say, have you seen-"

"Sasuke! Sakura-chan! Ero-sennin!"

"Oi, brat, I told you not to call me that!"

Naruto shrugged as he adjusted the strap of his pack. "Don't be so perverted then. Hey, what are you two doing here?" He threw his arms behind his head and grinned. "Didya come to give me a goodbye kiss, Sakura-chan?"

She bopped him on the head. "Don't be an idiot, I just came with Sasuke-kun to meet you here and say bye to both of you."

"Eh, both of us?"

Sasuke turned around and jerked a thumb towards his pack. "I'm going with you."

"Ehhhh, I don't get it but ok. Let's go!"

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Do we have to, you know, _tell_ someone that I'm leaving?"

Jiraiya snorted. "No, I pretty much do what I want. I'll send a toad back once we're on the road. Probably. If I remember. Well, let's get started; it would be a shame to miss her because we took too long!"

* * *

Near the wreckage of what had once been a beautiful castle four people stood, facing each other in groups of two.

"It's been quite a while, Orochimaru."

He smirked. "I have a little favor to ask from you."

* * *

**A/N**

Spent a week and a half staring at the first three sentences of the Sasuke/Naruto hospital thing only to suddenly wake up at 3am knowing what to do. This is both annoying and amusing as it is now 6am and I have work in a couple of hours :V.

Anyway, the entire sequence was originally much longer, with several pages devoted to each of them going into ridiculous detail about their respective experiences… but I ended up cutting that because, really, it would probably just be boring (if you would have preferred it that way, sorry~).


	4. Chapter 4

They were just over two hours out of Konoha when Jiraiya motioned for them to stop.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, why are we stopping? Is she here?" He eyed a nearby clump of bushes suspiciously.

"Idiot, if she was this close why would he have waited when he could easily get here and back in under a day."

As Naruto and Sasuke continued to bicker, Jiraiya walked off a bit before summoning a small, red toad that had green goggles looped about its neck as well as purple markings on both eyes and its forehead.

"Hey Kyonsuke, any word?"

"Jiraiya, I've told you before; my name is Kousuke."

"Sorry, I stuttered."

"You did that on- no. I refuse to do this. This is now the eighth, no, _ninth_ time you have pulled this same routine." The toad crossed his arms across his chest. "Do you have no shame?"

"Alright alright, I'm sorry." He made a placating gesture. "So, news?"

Kousuke stared sketching out a rough map in the dirt of the road, not even blinking as Naruto went sailing clear over his head. As Naruto ran back from where he was hurled from, he spoke up again. "Peach and I went around fire country using the well system and we overheard some folk talking about someone matching her description in this general area." He jabbed a foot at the corner of a map.

"Huh, that's not that far away. Thanks for the hard work." He made as if to dismiss the summoning but stopped as Kousuke help up an arm.

"You should know, Shima-sama wants you to visit for dinner sometime soon; it's been a while, after all. Anyway, I'm off."

As Kousuke vanished in a poof of smoke and Jiraiya fought back the urge to gag, he turned back to where he'd left his two traveling companions only to be greeted by the sight of Sasuke pinning Naruto to the ground by pressing one knee to the back of his neck and bending an arm in a rather awkward manner.

With a sigh, Jiraiya reached over and pulled Sasuke off of Naruto by the collar of his shirt.

"That's enough of that; come on, let's get going."

Sasuke performed an elaborate shrug to disengage himself from Jiraiya's grip as Naruto leapt up and started shouting about how, if given a few more seconds, he would have been victorious in their little grudge match.

Sasuke chose to ignore this in favor of obtaining some more information about the nature of their quest.

"So, who is this person we're searching for?"

"Senju Tsunade, my former teammate. Well, I shouldn't say _former… _even though we haven't really worked together for quite some time." He waved his hand about. "You know what I mean."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. "Wait, we're looking for a member of the Sannin?"

"Hey hey, who are the Sannin?"

"Eh, they don't talk about how amazing I am in the classes anymore? I might need to send them some of my books for reference…"

"They do, it's just that Naruto is too stupid to pay attention or remember."

Naruto ran around in front of Sasuke and leveled a finger at his face. "Shut up, Sasuke! Why would the Academy teach us about some old pervert anyway?"

Jiraiya pantomimed wiping tears from his eyes. "I'm hurt, Naruto. You truly think so lowly of me?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to grind his face into his palm.

_Idiots. I'm traveling with idiots._

"Listen, Naruto, that pervert-"

"Super pervert."

He shot a glare at Jiraiya.

"Listen, if you're going to disrespect me at least do it properly."

"… _Super Pervert,_ saved our lives back in the hotel. Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame - Sakura looked him up - are both S-rank missing-nin and he," He nodded to where Jiraiya was walking, slightly ahead of them, "fought both of them off like it was _nothing_. To give you an idea, Zabuza was classified as an A-rank missing-nin."

"Whoaaa. Hey Ero-sennin, you're awesome!"

Jiraiya huffed and crossed his arms as he leaned back. "Of course I am. Didn't you listen to my introduction when we first met?"

"No. Hey, weren't you gonna give me some awesome training?!"

Sasuke perked up at this. "Training?"

"Later. We've got some ground to cover."

"Alright, let's go!"

* * *

Several hours of light jogging - for shinobi, that is; a regular person would have been reduced to a sobbing, panting, sweat-soaked wreck in under a minute - later found the three of them making their way through a festival in the middle of a decently-sized town.

"Ok, ok, training time!" Naruto let out a loud cheer, drawing strange looks from passers-by.

"Alright brats, listen up." Seeing that he had both of their attentions focused on him, Jiraiya took a deep breath and continued, "Now, originally the plan was to come here and take a bit of a break before delving into the information-gathering portion of this trip. However, _things_" he accented this with dramatic hand-waving, "happened and we lost a couple of days, so, as a result, we're just going to skip the relaxation portion of this trip. Since the two of you would likely just get in the way - Naruto, don't give me that look - I'm going to set you up with some things to do in the meantime… but we're going to need some supplies."

One large bag that was struggling at its seams and a pleasantly surprised balloon merchant later, the three of them found themselves in a sparsely wooded clearing on the outskirts of the town.

By this point, Naruto was practically vibrating with pent up energy.

"Hey, Ero-sennin, what're you gonna teach me?!" After a quick sideways glance to Sasuke, he amended, "Us!"

Jiraiya made a show of being deep in thought before snapping his fingers.

"We're going to have a little… _competition_. I'll assign each of you something to learn and whoever picks it up first," here he paused and, with a flourish, produced a bulging wallet with the likeness of a frog, "wins money!"

"Gama-chan!"

"You really named your wallet? Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?"

"Shut up, Sasuke! Ero-sennin, give him back!"

"Nope! Well, not until you master your jutsu… and that's _if_ you're first. Who knows, maybe Sasuke here will end up the victor."

Sasuke was fighting back a grin as he watched Naruto teeter on the verge of incoherent rage. Who knew that someone could be even more annoying than Kakashi? His mind was occupied with thoughts of the strange antics of white-haired men as the two of them wandered out of earshot and, with much furtive looking over his shoulder - what was _with_ this guy -, some sort of conversation was occurring involving dramatic hand gestures and a blank expression on Naruto's face was taking place. After some time passed like this, a frustrated Jiraiya, judging by his body language, had Naruto summon a clone, and Sasuke, acting purely on reflex, activated his Sharingan in time to see a glowing blue sphere of chakra get slammed into the clone's stomach and send it flying off into the distance before being violently dispelled. Naruto was then left with the bag of balloons and a determined look on his face as Jiraiya headed his way.

As he drew nearer and was able to see his Sharingan, a flicker of something flashed across his face, but it was gone before he could recognize it.

"Hey, kid, were you able to copy it?"

A blank stare was his only response.

"The Rasengan." He mimed Naruto's clone spinning off into the trees.

"Yes, no… maybe? I mean, I was able to see what was done but not _how_ it was done."

Jiraiya nodded as if this made perfect sense.

"This kinda ties in with what I wanted you to learn. Come on, let's go over here. No need to distract Naruto… he does that enough on his own.

"Now, your jutsu will be the Chidori."

Sasuke waited a moment for the punchline. When none came, he treated Jiraiya to an incredulous look.

"Was this just some trick to take Naruto's money? I can already use the Chidori."

"Oh, you can? Show me."

So he did.

Jiraiya made a show of examining it from every angle, even going so far as to pour a few drops of a clear liquid from his flask that was unlikely to be water onto Sasuke's arm and watched as they evaporated.

"Hmm, impressive." He pulled out the wallet and was in the process of handing it over when he stopped. "Do it again, but this time without your Sharingan active."

Sasuke felt a momentary irritation. "But the whole point is to use it _with_ the Sharingan."

"Humor me."

With a huff, he deactivated his Sharingan, and then flashed through the hand signs and concentrated the chakra to his hand… and there was only a faint fizzling sound. After looking at his hand as though it had insulted his mother, and then at Jiraiya who was currently looking quite smug, he felt nothing but confusion. It must have shown on his face, because Jiraiya chose this moment to speak up.

"How was it you learned this in the first place."

"Kakashi explained it to me and had me-"

"'Copy it with my Sharingan,' right?"

He nodded.

"What a sloppy way of doing things, though I suppose if you were pressed for time it can be excused… and since, as you say, 'the whole point is using it with your Sharingan' you never noticed."

"Are you going to explain?"

"Tell me, have you ever wondered why it is that your sensei, the man known across the Elemental Nations as 'Copy Ninja Kakashi, the man who has copied over a thousand techniques,' only ever uses a select few of these in combat?"

"Because he's lazy?"

"Cute, but no. Sure, you can copy all sorts of things with those fancy eyes, but just because you can mimic it doesn't mean you understand it on a basic level. Yeah, that dojutsu of yours will fill in that gap, but there's always a cost. Maybe it's increased chakra consumption, or it takes you longer to execute, perhaps a lack of power, and so on. The _point_ is that if you want to use that Chidori of yours properly you need to be able to use it _without_ the help of your eyes. You'll be better off for it, and, possibly," he jingled Naruto's wallet, "richer as well."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"'Aren't you supposed to be a shinobi?' Figure it out. But because I'm such a nice guy, I'll give you a hint: shape before element. Have fun!"

With that, Jiraiya left Sasuke standing there, looking at his hand inquisitively. He shook his head and made his way back down to the town, but not before summoning two toads to keep a discrete watch on the boys in case of a repeat performance by Akatsuki.

You didn't make it to his age in this world without being careful.


End file.
